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Football in Africa

From 11 June to 11 July 2010 South Africa is hosting the FIFA 2010 Football World Cup. Thirty-two teams are taking part in the tournament and an estimated 2.7 million local spectators will view 64 matches played in nine stadiums around the country. In terms of the number of global viewers, the World Cup is the world's largest sporting event.

To mark this event, the Library, Documentation and Information Department of the African Studies Centre has compiled this web dossier on Football and sport in Africa. The dossier contains titles from the library's collection, including monographs, articles, and films, published since 2004. The titles are arranged in four sections, preceded by an introduction and followed by a selection of web resources All titles are available in the ASC library, each title linking directly to the corresponding record in the library’s online catalogue, which provides further details and, in many cases, an abstract. For titles in the ASC collection published before 2004, see our earlier web dossier on African sport (February 2004).

Introduction

Since South Africa’s bid for the 2010 Football World Cup was awarded by FIFA in May 2004, the country’s preparations for the event as well as the possible socio-economic impact of the World Cup tournament have been the focus of world-wide debate. On the one hand, it is argued that sporting events like the Football World Cup can play an important economic role as well as being useful catalysts in forging social cohesion and nationbuilding in the developing world. Others contend that hosting this event will not necessarily help alleviate poverty or stimulate urban development. While in 2004 public expenditure on the tournament was estimated at around 1.4 billion euros, in early 2010 estimates amounted to some 4 to 5 billion. The host cities talk of their 2010 'legacy', anticipating that the greater benefit of hosting 2010 matches will lie less in the event itself than in the long-term benefits of transport, sports and other infrastructure investment, and in the image created of the cities as a destination for tourists and investment. Critics emphasize that the newly built large capacity stadiums like the Greenpoint stadium in Cape Town threaten to end up as ‘white elephants’ on the continent. In South Africa itself, optimism seems to prevail, which is exemplied by Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s words: “with all the negative things that are taking place in Africa, this is a superb moment for us. If we are going to have white elephants, so be it”.

The World Cup 2010 has given rise to numerous publications on the history and development of football in Africa. They show, amongst others, that while in most African nations, the domestic leagues are financially unstable, politically corrupt, and lack quality facilities, the World Cup is expected to have a positive influence on the African football world. Recently, famous African football players like George Weah (Liberia) and Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire) have been active in the humanitarian field. Hundreds of organizations all over Africa combine football and social causes. The future development of football in Africa will also be influenced by the achievements of the six African teams competing in the World Cup – Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. An important question for many is whether or not the African teams will be able to make a good run during the competition.

FIFA 2010 World Cup Research Project
The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa initiated a research project which seeks, a.o., to contribute to city strategic and programme planning occurring at all levels of government through research, publications and through an annual poll of public attitudes to the 2010 World Cup.http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/projects/view/NDADLA

Zuid-Afrika Journaal, nieuws en achtergronden
Dutch online magazine, initiated by journalist and web publisher Klaas Deknatel. Reports from Cape Town on the 2010 World Cup and provides information on South Africa 2010 in collaboration with the Dutch embassy and the Southern African Netherlands Chamber of Commerce.http://zuidafrika2010.net/

Soccer Politics / The politics of Football: Africa
The Africa section of Soccer Politics, “a discussion forum about the power of the global game”, focuses on the political and economic effects of soccer on life in Africa, and on notable accomplishments on the field by African soccer teams. It also looks at the World Cup in South Africa and beyond. By Katie Greenstreet, Cole Grossman, Nelson De Oliveira, and Robert Weaver.http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/category/africa/

Zum ersten Mal in Afrika - die Fußballweltmeisterschaft 2010
‘Afrika-Vitrine’ on football with search strings to titles on African and South African sport/football in the special collection Africa South of the Sahara of the Goethe University in Frankfurt.http://www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/afrika/vav20_fussball_wm.html